...'cause he doesn't indent his paragraphs.

Such progress we've made.

As someone who has been in the classroom for more than 30 years, it is not working. Proven instruction is being thrown out because it does not translate well to the test. Social Studies does not get tested so it is given less and less emphasis and time. So we will have students who don't know history and will believe the rewritings of the media and politicians.
Teachers are discouraged and teaching content that they feel is not suited to their students but have no choice because everyone must make measurable gains on the test. Thanks to this administration, jobs are now tied to student test scores. Hungry, poor students in abusive, drug addicted households must make the appropriate gains or it is the teacher's fault and there is no money to offer any additional support to these kids. I spend a lot of my own money buying essentials for my classroom.
I used to tell students what a great profession teaching was, now I tell students to find another career.

We've gone way beyond teaching to the test. The system has finally arrived where I figured it was headed as early as 2000. With days lost to weather this winter and the inflexibility of standardized testing schedules, I am spending more time administering tests than I am preparing students to take them. The result will be lower pass rates, more political interference, more teacher scapegoating, and more evidence that public schools are failing and need more of the same reforms that have caused them to need reform. The word that comes to mind is Kafkaesque.

I have always thought one of the biggest red flags about the qualification of a candidate is whether or not they ever earned an MBA. In spite of the assurances of those who wish to control government, business is nothing like government. It might be the antithesis of government; at least democratic government.
Business is concerned with extracting the most while expending the least (buy low, sell high). They are focused on mainly short term goals. There is a built in disposition to serve a master; be that master stockholders, (due to stock options frequently the company executives making the decisions) or an owner.
Democratic government shouldn't be extracting anything, but building a framework which allows the greatest amount of satisfaction for the greatest amount of people. While maintaining the best level of equality. Governmental goals should be hundreds of years long; or at least decades. There should be no masters, just participants, each worth the same amount.

We do not have that. We, once, were on the path to that.

Having suffered for many years under the inept hand of Corporate America, I recognize this administration's obsession with standardized testing as the product of Corporate obsession with benchmarks. The insane idea that a cookie cutter check point can be crammed onto every situation and produce reliable results. It doesn't work that well in the far more regulated and mature world of the workplace. So, expecting it to work in the exuberant dynamic world of a school is insane. But, it will produce information which can be interpreted in any number of ways. Remember, figures don't lie, but liars can figure.

>>>Having suffered for many years under the inept hand of Corporate America, I recognize this administration's obsession with standardized testing as the product of Corporate obsession with benchmarks. The insane idea that a cookie cutter check point can be crammed onto every situation and produce reliable results. It doesn't work that well in the far more regulated and mature world of the workplace. So, expecting it to work in the exuberant dynamic world of a school is insane. But, it will produce information which can be interpreted in any number of ways. Remember, figures don't lie, but liars can figure.>>>>

Our schools "Teach to the Test" curriculum, does not have time to impart understanding. The curriculum object is to teach the students enough of the answers to the test, so the schools get enough money to continue in the business of teaching to the test.

imho...these policies negate the law which stipulates each child be given a free and appropriate
education.

Nothing would please me more than to see a challenge of that magnitude.

They didn't sign up for, and were not expected to be, anything else - and they're the best, because they WANT to!

& owned by multinational elites.

IOW, compete against workers all over the world for jobs.